Featuring vocals from singer, songwriter, dancer and collaborator Julia Romana, ‘Dancing in Nylon’ exudes sensuality from the very first note. Reminiscent of a hopeful dream sequence, Veronika’s euphoric instrumentals paired with Julia’s sultry voice makes for a truly heavenly slice of left-field alt-pop. 

Written during lockdown, Veronika’s aim was to create something that people could dance to. The music video also stars and is choreographed by dance coach and choreographer Jenny Stones. 

Veronika says, “I played around with some basic chord ideas on the piano, and used an old drum loop and guitar loops we recorded in the studio previously. I sent the basic structure and chord ideas to Julia and asked her to create some vocals and lyrics on top. I love working with Julia – we just understand each other when creating music, and what kind of vibe we are after.  Julia got back to me with the lyrics within a couple of hours and just came together perfectly.”

Tell us about your new project ‘Dancing in Nylon’. How did you get to where you are now?

The idea for Dancing in Nylon started in one of the lockdowns, I remember being on the phone with Julia one evening saying: I wanna create a more upbeat song to the usual stuff we do – something people can dance to and vibe to. I played around with some basic chord ideas on the piano, and used an old drum loop and guitar loops we recorded in the studio before Covid & played around with it. I sent the basic structure and chord ideas to Julia and asked her to create some vocals and lyrics on top. I love working with Julia – we just understand each other when creating music, and what kind of vibe we are after. 

Julia got back to me with the lyrics withhin a couple of hours – It just came together very quickly.Soon after I had this idea in my head of a dancer dancing around all by herself in an abandoned warehouse – I got in touch with Jenny, the choreographer and dancer and also Dammy, the Videographer and Editor of the music video, and told them about my idea. Through friends I came across the warehouse and we just fixated a day to shoot the whole video in January. Its been out now for over a month – and we’ve had some amazing feedback. I could not be happier ! 

What should a song or piece of art communicate in your opinion? 

As musicians, filmmakers or creatives we do have an educational purpose too – whatever you put out there, you have to be aware of what you want to communicate to people. For me personally, when people say they enjoy listening to music of mine or resonate with it in a way – thats the biggest reward you can get. When starting a new song or project, I always ask the Singer I work with what the song is about, what they want to communicate – same with music video content, I always ask what it is I want people to think or feel when watching it, listening to it. I think the main thing it should communicate is a sense of a certain feeling the artist initially had when writing the song.

Who were your top 3 artists last year?

Melvitto, Amaarae, Doja Cat

What do you do when you’re feeling uninspired?

I usually go for a walk or exercise, go to a dance class, boxing or yoga, something where you can switch off your brain completely. If there is a tight deadline and I don’t have time for that I just listen to new music and try and get inspiration there.

What are your 2022 projects and goals?

My EP release and music video release of DIN were a big goal of mine, but there is so much more I have planned for the coming months. Me and Julia are currently writing on a track, which I want to get dancers involved again for a music video. Also, I want to get back into writing music for film and games, so there is some exciting projects coming my way in that department.

Favorite movie or TV show?

Film: Gladiator; TV Show: Modern Family

Tell us about your latest release and how it came about

Where Do We Go was my latest release and the last track of my EP Persephone. II wrote and produced this track with my old uni mate from Salzburg, David Era (David Mayer). Again, one lovely lockdown day (:D) I started to play around with guitar loops and recorded some clarinet chords, layered them and improvised a rough vocal idea on top. I sent the idea to David, and he started recording some guitars & vocals on it, and programmed some drum and bass ideas. We went back and forth a couple of times to finish the track, and I also got Julia on board to sing along to give the vocals a richer and fuller sound.

During the lockdown time me and David were going through quite a tough time due to no work coming in & personal stuff – being a musician during that time was not a very easy thing! Where Do We Go seems like a question – Where is this going? It kind of feels like a break-up song, but it could also be a question towards life itself – not knowing where to go – figuring out things.

What is something you would want to change in the music and entertainment industry?

Try and get more and more diversity. It still is very white, male dominated, especially in the higher positions. 

Can you outline your creative process?

It’s hard to describe – it very much varies. I am a very audio visual person, so whenever I see an image or video a melody starts in my head. My brain is really weird that way! If I am not around the studio I just whistle the basic idea into my phone, or I sit down at the piano and start to play around with that idea. What I focus on nowadays is to think less complicated but come up with a catchy main melody, everything else follows and bounces of that. With Julia for example we go back and forth a couple of times on instrument ideas. Things can come together very quickly or it takes a bit of experimenting to get the sound right. 

Who inspires your style and aesthetics?

Anything tbh! With filmmusic I am inspired by Thomas Newman and James Newton Howard a lot. With music production I listen to everything – old stuff, new stuff whatever I come accross. I don’t set myself any limits regarding inspiration.

What is the achievement or moment in your career you are the most proud of and why?

I would say writing additional music under Isobel Waller-Bridge for the Apple TV Series ‘Roar’ starring Nicole Kidman has been my biggest achievement to this day. Working on it has been a lot of fun and I think you can hear that in the music !

What do you think an artist should sing about nowadays?

That’s a hard question to answer as music and making music is so individual and unique for each artist. I think it’s mainly about staying original and true to oneself, telling your story or telling people about your take on issues going on in our society.

Do you have any regrets?

There are some situations I think back on where I am like: I could have done that better, but then again life is a never ending learning process and things that went wrong are usually the ones we learn the most from. Especially being in music is such a huge learning curve in the beginning stages, and I would not want to miss any of those lessons!

What is some piece of advice you would give to yourself right now?

Be patient and trust the process. Things happen or don’t happen for a reason – and there is nothing wrong about that.